The LESIA – Observatoire de Paris (France) invites applications for an Research Engineer, who will carry out the study and specification of the on-ground processing algorithms of the PLATO space mission.
This work is conducted under the responsibility of the LESIA (respectively R. Samadi) in the framework of WP 32 (a component of the Plato Data Center, PDC). It involves many collaborators in close contact with the team responsible for the development of the on-ground software at the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen (Germany).
Finally, it will be necessary to translate the algorithms, currently in the form of detailed specifications, into a set of documents on the basis of which the PLATO Data Center (PDC) team will then develop the codes and perform the validation and integration tests.
Starting date: at the earliest from 1st November 2020
Applications until: mid September
Where: LESIA – Observatoire de Paris, at the Meudon site (92, Haut de Seine, France)
Contacts: WP 32 office (Emmanuel Grolleau, Réza Samadi)
Duration of the contract: 1 year (with possible extension of 1 year)
Salary: the salary level corresponds to the CNRS IR (Ingenieur de Recherche) fixed-term contract salary scale and depends on the level of the diploma and experience.
Job Tasks
The successful candidate will join the DPA-WG working group.
He/she will be in charge of:
- contributing to the study and development (Python and C language) of correction and calibration algorithms;
- implementing the simulation sets needed for the studies conducted by the DPA- WG;
- contributing to the writing of documents describing in detail the algorithms and methods adopted for each sub-component of the on-ground data processing chain;
- defining and performing the unit tests associated with each component of the data processing chain.
To carry out his/her work, the candidate will have at his disposal the PLATOSim simulator (Marcos-Arenal et al, 2014, A&A) which models each telescope and their spatial environment. The applicant will integrate a team made up of several LESIA researchers and engineers involved in the PLATO space mission.
The candidate will also benefit from the expertise of a team of researchers and engineers from different European countries (France, Portugal, Germany, United Kingdom) with solid experience in space missions CoRoT, Kepler and GAIA. The candidate will develop, in Python and C / C ++, the numerical codes corresponding to the algorithms that he will have to design or that will be proposed to him.
Profile’s requirements
The candidate must hold a doctorate in astrophysics (or in a similar subject: physics, or signal processing for example) or an engineering degree (including experience in astrophysics research or signal processing). The person will have experience in software writing and/or data analysis. The candidate must appreciate teamwork and agree to travel within Europe to visit different partners.
The mastery of written and oral English is essential.
Previous work experience in a context related to space research would be a plus. Experience in image data analysis and / or optics will be much appreciated. Knowing the Python and C/C ++ languages would be a plus, as well as the mastery of collaborative development tools (e.g. Subversion). Experience in supervision would also be much appreciated.
How to apply
To apply for this job, please send
- a CV;
- a letter of motivation indicating the adequacy of the qualifications and/or experiences including the position(s), as well as a description of past experiences;
- a list of publications as appropriate
The application shall be submitted in the form of a single PDF file (<5Mo) by email to wp32.office@obspm.fr with the subject “Application PLATO / ALGO”. Applications are being solicited now and a first file review will be conducted starting from mid-September 2020.
Full details can be found in this attachment or in the Job Offer published on the LESIA website.
platomission.com 
